New MN Special Hockey Logo -- All Star Team

Snazzy new logo! Click for full sized version.

Season ending event reminder - Mar 7 2010

Toni Boelter reminds everyone:

Who: All MN Special Hockey Players, Families & Friends
What: MN Special Hockey End of Season Event
When: Sunday, March 7; 3:30 - 5:45 p.m.

Game #1 Eagles vs. Wildcats - 3:30 - 4:15 p.m.
4:15 p.m. Trophy Presentation for Game #1
4:30 p.m. Team Photos (we will take a photo of each team and a photo of the entire program)

Game #2 Polars vs. Stingers - 4:45 - 5:30 p.m.
5:30 p.m. Trophy Presentation for Game #2

Where:

Maple Grove Community Center
12951 Weaver Lake Road, Maple Grove
763-494-6500

Minnesota Hockey booth rep needed: March 12 and 13

From Toni:

Disabled Hockey has been asked to have representatives at the Minnesota Hockey booth again this year during the Let’s Play Hockey Expo. 

I am looking for just a few reps to be at the booths during the times below.  It would be great to have someone from each of the programs there during those times to answer questions.  We will be showing a video as well. 

Please let me know by this Friday if you are able to be there and when. 

Thanks everyone!  Toni  J

Disabled hockey reps at the booth:

• Friday, March 12^th   3p-6p
• Saturday, March 13^th   2p-5p

MN Special Hockey End of Season Event Sun Mar 7

Who: All MN Special Hockey Players, Families & Friends
What: MN Special Hockey End of Season Event
When: Sunday, March 7; 3:30 - 5:45 p.m.

Game #1 Eagles vs. Wildcats - 3:30 - 4:15 p.m.
4:15 p.m. Trophy Presentation for Game #1
4:30 p.m. Team Photos (we will take a photo of each team and a photo of the entire program)

Game #2 Polars vs. Stingers - 4:45 - 5:30 p.m.
5:30 p.m. Trophy Presentation for Game #2

Where:

Maple Grove Community Center
12951 Weaver Lake Road, Maple Grove
763-494-6500

Questions? Contact your coach or email Susie Miller at
susiemiller35@gmail.com

This year we will not have a pizza party. With 71 players and guests it becomes very challenging!  Join us for great hockey and trophy presentations.

Have a great day!

Susie Miller

Seasons end, Protect the Net and Maryland Tournament

From the desk of Susie Miller …

Protect the Net for Youth Hockey

Tonight MN Special Hockey is the American Family “Protect the Net for Youth Hockey” beneficiary. For every save the Wild goalie makes $10 will be put aside for our program. While I hope the Wild win, I hope the Oilers get a lot of shots and I hope that Josh Harding steps up and makes the saves for MN Special Hockey.

Maryland

We are close to having enough players attend. Bus would be about $175 per person. Hotel $119 per night (3 nights).

We would provide $250 per player towards the trip (between special hockey and mn hockey).

The bus would transport us while we there, we could do a Cherry Blossom Tour, or other exciting events throughout Maryland. We are planning to host the tournament in Blaine in 2011, it would be great if we could send a team out there before! Please contact Susie at susiemiller35@gmail.com with any questions.

Additional thoughts form Susie Miller

We are entering the final months of our season, I have a few thoughts for those newer players who have not been with us the whole time. The 2009-2010 season is only our 4th Season as an association. In the past 4 years we have come a long way.

Administrative: Created teams including logos/jerseys, schedules, secured ice (which was one of our biggest challenges in the beginning).

Marketing: We are on the radar of most News stations (local cable and statewide). We have received publicity in the Star Tribune, many articles in Lets Play Hockey, and also a few local newspapers. We have been receiving more and more referrals from Special Education teachers and departments.

Fundraising: MN Special Hockey has developed amazing partnerships with a few incredible organizations that have helped us raise enough money to provide some security to the future of our program. As well as allow us to continue to offer our program without raising fees since our start up.

Relationships: We now have a relationship with MN Hockey and USA Hockey. MN Hockey has helped us create a relationship with the MN Wild, which in turn has helped us in fundraising and more fame as a program.

We are headed in the right direction, but still have a long way to go. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we experience growing pains and develop the program we know will be successful.

Volunteers needed: Let’s Play Hockey Expo March 12 and 13

We will need help at the MN Hockey booth at the Let’s Play Hockey Expo (part of the boys high school state tournament) on March 12 & 13. Please contact Toni Boelter (tboelter@minnesotahockey.org) if you are able to help out either of these days.

Volunteers needed: Prairie Island (2/20) and Family Fun Day (2/20)

February 20 we have two events that we need volunteers:

Prairie Island (Feb 20)

See the flyer for the Skate at Prairie Island.

This season they presented MN Hockey – Disabled Hockey Section a check for $10,000. We will be receiving some of these funds in grant form. They would like us to come down and skate at their arena. Our skate time is 4:30 – 5:15 p.m. W

hile this should be a fun event for your skater it is also a great time for us to say thank you and show Prairie Island exactly where their money is going and how it benefits us! If you are able to help with this event please contact Toni at: tboelter@minnesotahockey.org

Gillete Childrens Family Fun Day (Feb 20)

Gillette Childrens’ is hosting a family fun day at Buck Hill, they are looking for organizations to come and promote winter sports to their attendees. The time we would need to be there is 1-3 pm (on our way down to Prairie IslandJ). If you are able to help with this event please contact me at susiemiller35@gmail.com

Hockey for all – Yahoo Sports article about a New Jersey initiative …

Published Jan 26, 2010 in a Yahoo Sports blog. It covers both Disabled and Special hockey (emphases mine) and references the EveryBODY skates organization …

Hitting 54 rinks in 54 hours, for one great hockey cause - Puck Daddy - NHL Blog - Yahoo! Sports

Josh Pauls, 17, is a bi-lateral amputee from South Plainfield, NJ, whose legs were surgically removed at 10 months old. He's also a heck of a hockey player.

Pauls is a sled hockey player for the Woodbridge Spinal Rangers, and has been a member of the U.S. Junior National Sled Hockey Team (2007-2009) before earning a promotion to the U.S. Men's Paralympic Team that will compete in the Paralympics in Vancouver next month. He's also a member of EveryBODY Skates New Jersey (ESNJ) -- an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for more athletes like Josh to break through barriers and experience the incomparable thrill of competitive hockey.

"People just think of sled hockey, and there are 300 other disciplines," said Jon Schwartz, who along with brother Andrew coaches and leads the ESNJ campaign. "Because hockey has so much stimulus, it helps. Especially with autistic kids."

On Friday, Jan. 29, as part of Hockey Weekend in America, EveryBODY Skates New Jersey will begin an ambitious journey through the Garden State: Visiting all 54 New Jersey ice rinks in 54 hours. The goal is to help convince those rink owners and operators that allocating just one hour of ice time per week to disabled hockey can make an enormous difference for this fledgling program and thousands of potential players across the state.

"We're going about 1,370 miles to prove a point," said Schwartz. "That hockey is the ultimate occupational therapy for people with disabilities."

The notion of "disabled hockey" is usually limited to sled hockey (or sledge hockey), which is played around the globe. (And even results in a fight or two sometimes, as we learned last year.)

But Schwartz said that notion ignores hockey for the deaf, for example, and hockey for players with developmental disabilities.

An obvious question: What does Autistic hockey look like?

"It's a little scary for parents to put a weapon in the hands of a kid who has Autism and put them out on a slippery surface," said Schwartz. "But I think it looks beautiful. There's no icing or off-sides. We just go. The scoreboard is like a nice decoration."

He said hockey is used to stimulate as well as inspire. Goals are arranged for young players to easily score. Eight-year-olds battle adults for face-offs. "Can you imagine at 16 years old getting your first [athletic] jersey?" Schwartz asked.

There are clear benefits to disabled hockey, and Schwartz said there academic studies underway to confirm them. The obstacle facing EveryBODY Skates New Jersey and other programs like it is the same obstacle facing so many other community hockey organizations throughout the U.S.: a little thing called "available ice time."

New Jersey's 54 rinks give preference to established travel teams and high-school hockey programs. They're businesses, so that's understandable; the challenge for ESNJ is convince some of them that, if given the opportunity, disables hockey programs won't simply be charitable ventures and will pay for themselves.

"Most rinks don't realize that disabled hockey programs can pay their own way. They just need a chance to access some ice time and gain some support from the community," said Schwartz. "We have a community in New Jersey that can mobilize its forces very well. If word spreads that Rink X is holding time for disabled hockey. If you build it, they will come."

This weekend, the word spreads over 54 hours. Among the group touring the state will be U.S. Paralympians Tim Jones and Josh Pauls; U.S. Amputee team member Joe Bowser and two U.S. Deaf Olympians, along with Schwartz and others. The trip begins at the NHL Store in Manhattan at 10 a.m. on Friday, with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and ESPN's EJ Hradek scheduled to attend. (Schwartz said 20-percent of store sales that morning will be donated to ESNJ.)

The final rink of the trip will be the Prudential Center in Newark on Jan. 31, where the ESNJ athletes will be honored before the New Jersey Devils take on the Los Angeles Kings.

ESNJ has a petition on its Web site to drum up support for the cause; there's also a complete schedule of their stops during the 54-rink trek (pdf).  "Some stops might be a quick in and out," said Schwartz.

The transformative power of competitive sports is always a compelling subject. So is the battle of available sheets of ice for a growing program, which is something I experienced while covering the birth of a high-school hockey league in Northern Virginia, driving home from covering games until 12:30 a.m. on a Friday night.

Hockey is for everyone, or at least it should be; and whether it's EveryBODY Skates New Jersey or a program in your community, it's important to recognize the efforts of those who are trying to bring the Game to those it can inspire and encourage. Here's to safe and effective 54 hours in Jersey.

Maryland tournament update: Contact Susie before Jan 31.

Update on Maryland Special Hockey tournament from Susie Miller:

MN Special Hockey is planning to send a team to Maryland. If we can get 40 people who would like to charter a coach bus we could provide transportation for less than $175 per person. The bus would leave Wednesday evening, April 7 and leave immediately following the activities in Maryland on Sunday, April 11.

Both ways the bus would travel through the night for ease of transportation. We would have 2 bus drivers to make sure it is a safe trip. The chartered bus would also provide our transportation around Maryland. We have rooms booked at SHERATON HOTEL COLUMBIA Rate is $119.00/Night + tax.

MN Special Hockey will give players $100 and MN Hockey – Disabled Hockey section will give $150 per skater. So $250 will be given towards the trip.

Please let me know by Sunday, January 31 (susiemiller35@gmail.com) if your skater is planning to go to the tournament (please let me know even if you have expressed an interest in the past), and if you would ride the chartered bus if we were able to have enough people interested.

Any specific questions please email me or call me at 612-325-3392.

Apparel forms for 2010 - including wildcats

You can download and print the 2010 Apparel order form. Players should send in the form to Jane Cashin no later than February 8th.